Some Kind of Monster
by Yotsuba101
Summary: Everyone has their own kind of monster. Some rip you apart from the inside out and others take you over. Alyss and her brother have turned over a new leaf, but their monsters are still lurking in the shadows of their mind. Alyss meets somebody who knows exactly how it feels. Bruce/OC
1. The Screw Up

**This is my first fanfic that I've written since I was like, 12 . So please be gentle. It's also my first non-anime fic too. This does have 2 OCs, but it centers around Alyss mainly. Dante is just there because I need him, he's not even paired up with anybody (maybe later he will be, but he's a bachelor for now). There's a short bio on them in the beginning. Also, their parentage will become a bit more obvious later in the story and I did take some elements from the comics and put them in here but not many, I promise that you won't be confused. Well, I hope you guys like it**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for Alyss and Dante**

* * *

Astrid/Alyssandra

Aliases: Alyss

Parentage: Heimdall and Amora

Species: Asgardian

Abilities: Genius-level intellect, superhuman strength , durability, superhuman hearing, healing factor, stamina, and reflexes. Has yet to unlock any sort of mystical powers.

Einar/Dante

Parentage: Heimdall and Amora

Species: Asgardian

Abilities: Superhuman strength, durability, healing factor, stamina, agility, and reflexes  
levitation, power of suggestion, energy blasts, and slight teleportation.

_The siblings spent a great deal of their lives in orphanages, they often spent as much time as possible together, fearing that a family would come and separate them. At the age of 14, Alyss was adopted out without Dante to a wealthy family. When her new father came back to the orphanage to pick up her few possessions, Dante used his power of suggestion to have him allow coming back to his home to reunite with his sister. Upon walking through the house, Dante found that they had adopted Alyss with the intent to sell her into a slave trade and freed her, burning down the house and its habitants along the way. This was their realization of their powers._

_ From there, the two lived on the run and with a group of nomads for a while, who taught them how to defend themselves. They traveled across the country by means of walking and sneaking onto buses. They eventually made their home in New York, becoming assassins for hire after nearly perfecting their trade. They have no idea of their parentage or their race (they assumed they were a large mixture of races)._

* * *

I ran swiftly down the hall way away from the shouting men. The grates under my worn mock-up combat boots rattled with every step, but I wasn't going to take the time to be graceful. I screwed up and these men were going to kill me.

That's when I heard the roar.

I took a right turn at a hallway labeled "exit" in bold green letters. It's funny what you notice when you're scared out of your mind. At this point, I could feel the grates rattling from some being other than I chasing after me and the roars grew louder and more enraged. I took one more right into a room and slammed the door behind me before clasping my scraped up hands over my mouth trying to calm my breathing.

'Don't you _dare_ cry,' I thought to myself, blinking back fearful tears. I have never found myself in this sort of predicament before, and now, in this room illuminated by small blinking machines and computers, I just wanted to cry.

It was quiet outside again. No more shouting men and no more monsters, nothing but the small buzzing sound of machines – no. It was coming.

I gasped and with agility that surprised even me jumped away from the door and slid under a desk as the door blew apart from the monster's clawed hand. He roared and thrashed his ugly, boiled head around. He panted and walked forward, away from my hiding place. I took this chance to creep backwards in the darkest corners of the room and eventually to the green exit sign where my freedom awaited.

The monster became still and my breath hitched in my throat. He sniffed at the air, the two nostril holes flapping open in the middle of his disfigured face. He then turned and his dead yellow eyes met my green. He roared and ran full force at me. I ducked and slid underneath his legs and booked it back to the door which I had come from but it was too late. He caught one of my arms into a bone crushing fist and flung me back into a window, which shattered as my back met it. I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for the impact of the floor of the next room, but was instead met with another body.

One light brown arm held fast around my waist and a hand clamped over my mouth as we shot up into the air and levitated in the corner of the ceiling. I clutched hard onto the arm for fear of falling. The monster climbed through the window, ignoring the shards that dug into his skin and looked about the room, confused. My breathing grew shallower; it would be a matter of time before he saw us or smelled us. The seconds seemed to crawl by like hours and I grew more and more apprehensive. Then I caught the sound of gun shots and helicopters in the distance.

Dante, noticing how tense I grew in his arms, clutched me tighter to his chest. I prayed that these new comers were friendly and had a lot of weapons. The creature had paced around by now and froze, sniffing at the air and growling. His head shot up to our corner of the room and he roared. I screamed into my brother's hand.

Then a small red haired woman and about 20 armored agents filed in through the broken window, shooting at the monster. It didn't matter how many they shot, he'd still be standing. I know, I tried. The monster swept his hand to the side and took out several agents, roaring in anger. The red-haired woman then dropped her gun to the floor and ran towards the monster full force, doing a tremendous leap over his head and ending up on his back. He thrashed around and she pulled a sharp disk from her belt. She stabbed into the monster's neck and was immediately sprayed with dark blood, but she seemed unaffected. The monster then fell to the side and she gracefully leaped off his back.

She shot a look to one of the agents and he began calling orders into what I assumed was a radio. The men all loaded back out of the room, but she stayed. She looked up towards our corner, red hair bobbing about.

"Well? Come on down, I know that must be uncomfortable." She said simply before walking over to the wall and sliding down.

Dante didn't budge. I rubbed his arm affectionately and pulled his hand away from my mouth. He let out a shaky sigh and we slowly descended to the floor, on the other side of the dead creature. She didn't look up at us.

"So, who's going to explain this to me?" she asked.

Dante remained silent, obviously not intending to speak. I sighed.

"It's my fault…" I said quietly. "We were sent to get the toxin for our employer, but I was found out and in my escape knocked over a vial of it and… This guy ran right into it."

Dante cursed under his breath and took a step in front of me.

"This normally doesn't happen; it's our first screw up. Ever. We're leaving now." He abruptly snatched my hand and pulled me towards the door.

"I wouldn't if I were you. There are about 200 SHIELD agents out there that will shoot you on sight," she looked up at us "of course; you are welcome to stay here with me for a while. I don't bite." She stood up and swiped at her face with the back of her hand in a weak attempt to clear the blood from her face.

I looked to Dante and he kept his eyes trained on her.

"What more can we do? I'm not sure in our current state we could take on 200." I said softly.

His head whipped around to me and I noticed his split lip.

"She's right you know," the woman said before holding her hand to ear, muttering something to whoever she was talking to.

"Alyss," he hissed in between his teeth. I frowned back at him.

"Alright guys, change of plans, you're coming with me," she declared.

My eyes widened and she stared back at us coolly.

"We'll get you all cleaned up and fed. We'll even send your employer letters of resignation." She walked the door, her small heels clacking loudly against the tiled floor.

I wasn't sure what to do. I figured that going with her would be best but Dante remained stationary in his place. I looked between the two and he glared at me. I heard the woman sigh.

"How about this, come willingly or some in chains. Your choice." She was obviously annoyed. I took initiative again and tugged him forward. He looked into my eyes and I continued to urge him along. We followed the woman outside.

After a long and awkward ride on a jet, our injuries were taken care of on the Helicarrier, this amazing flying contraption. The woman, who we found out was named Natasha Romanov, apologized because she was leaving for another mission and left us in the care of the craft's agents. Dante and I remained quiet the majority of the time, answering only simple questions. They showed us to our rooms were we took our much needed showers.

* * *

I exited the restroom covered in a towel, my long black hair wet and sticking to my back. I should've asked about clothes before the agent left. I glanced around the small room and went to the bed. There was my freshly washed jeans, which had suffered minimal damage, and a white tank top and black sports bra with the tags still on laying next it. That was nice of them. My original shirt and bra was thrashed beyond wearing after yesterday's engagements. I pulled on the clothes and braided my hair into a single braid. I couldn't find a hairband so I let it be, hoping the braid wouldn't unravel until it dried. Then I could let my waves loose.

I sighed and fell back onto my bed. 'I wonder if Dante has killed anybody yet.' I worried him getting us killed more than anything. He had a tendency to blow up on people, a strange mean streak that would pop up in him sometime.

There was a light tapping at my door and I called for them to come in. A tall blonde woman in a lab coat stood there. I sat up and walked over to her.

"Alyssandra?" she asked hesitantly. I nodded. "Can you come with me please?"

I pulled on my boots, wishing for a pair of socks. She led me down one of the many pristine white hallways. Many agents were around now, and there was a sense of urgency in the air. I attempted to pay it no mind. She led me into a room with a single table in it and two chairs, the inhabitant of one was a large black man with an eye patch.

"Ah, Ms. Alyssandra," he said, standing up. "I'm Nick Fury, the director here at SHIELD."

I shook his hand and took the seat across from him. The woman left the room and I couldn't help but to wonder if she was getting Dante.

I turned to Fury and sat up straight.

"Now, we've been researching you and your brother a bit, and we haven't been able to find much more than several robberies, an assassination, and arson. Would you mind filling in the blanks for us?"

My mouth went dry. How would Dante feel about this?

"I called you specifically" he said, as if he knew what I was thinking. "Please don't take it personally, but we've found you to be more compliant when alone."

I nodded. "What would you like to know Sir?"

"Anything, really. I'm aware that you two are orphans, any idea of who your parents are?"

I shook my head.

"Alright, well how about crimes? A list of each and how many would be nice."

I frowned at him. "I don't know about-"

"You won't be in trouble," he interrupted "we just want to know what you're capable of. Also, here."

I took the papers he handed to me and looked it over; it was a list of abilities.

"Just check whatever you think applies. There's one there for your brother as well, if you wouldn't mind listing his too."

At this point, I decided to stop being polite. I had no clue what Fury was getting at.

"Mr. Fury," I sighed, pushing the papers to the side. "Please understand. Although my brother is rather… impolite, it does not mean that he can't be communicated with. You also seem to think that we _want_ to be here. While the food and showers are a nice variation, we didn't come here by choice and are losing investments as we speak. I'm aware of the fact that SHIELD is a prominent knowledge organization, but all of this prying into our pasts seems rather unnecessary, and to be frank, rude. I believe that I can voice for both of us when I say: thank you, but we would like to return home as soon as possible."

Fury was quiet as I spoke and seemed to absorb what I was saying, his brain conjuring up a reply to my statement. His eye remained trained to me and as he moved to say something, I flinched. Dante called my name in some other part of the ship. He was close and I was just now picking it up, as I was probably distracted by the amount of information that was swarming my head.

"Alyssandra?" Fury asked uncertainly.

"Dante, he's coming," I told him meekly, opening my ears "And he's angry."

Fury raised an eyebrow but soon he too could hear the sound of guards and Dante yelling. Within 10 seconds he ran past the window paneled door and then shot back around to throw it open. His short curls were still wet and shed small droplets of water as he stepped inside the room. I stood up from my chair quickly and moved to calm him down, but he grabbed my arm tightly and pulled me close, glaring over my shoulder at Fury.

"What the _fuck _have you been saying to her?" he hissed.

Fury stood up and locked his good eye with Dante's, resolutely. By now, the guards had caught up and stood outside the door, their guns trained on my brother.

"I was just about to explain to your sister a particular job opportunity that I was going to offer you both."

"Well save it! We're leaving now, I won't stand another minute being treated like an animal on this flying hunk of metal." He turned to see the guards and glared them down.

"Your sister told me that we could speak to you," Fury waved his hand at the guards, who slowly turned their guns away. "Please, I think it's time that I tell you on why we took you in."

I pulled my arm out of Dante's grasp and he looked back at me, slightly shocked.

"We're listening." I said to Fury.

"Here at SHIELD, we have been experimenting, always looking for a new project. Recent events have been a cause for concern, our world may one day be at stake and we may not be able to protect it. I have come up with a program that I call the Avengers initiative. Now while I normally wouldn't consider anyone so," Fury glanced at Dante "determined, I have to start somewhere. When Ms. Romanov called you two in, it got me to thinking; you two, being natural partners and not formally trained, you could be almost like the guinea pigs for this initiative. It's no secret that you are both powerful beings and SHIELD can give you a better existence. If the initiative never comes into play, then you two will be left with more control and job disposals."

I glanced over at Dante who looked at me, indecision was obvious in him.

"I do like hot showers." I said and he cracked a small smile.

"You don't need to decide right this moment, I know things are still tense, but be aware that even if you say no, we will be tracking your whereabouts and your crimes."

Dante and I both visibly cringed. Fury chuckled lightly at the action and walked out of the room, the guards dispersing soon after. Dante sighed and plopped down into my chair.

"I don't know we're going to do." He said, defeated.

"Well, I do like his proposition. We would profit from it." I smiled at him "You just need to stop being the pessimist."

He grimaced and looked up at me. I couldn't help but to laugh a bit.

"Stop being difficult Dante, you know that the offer sounds at least somewhat enticing." I reached around him and took the papers Fury had handed me earlier, scanning them. "We wouldn't have to worry about money anymore or have any accidents like we did with that creature yesterday. And again, I do like hot showers."

I headed towards the door and peeked down the blinding white hall. 'Which way was my room again?' I heard Dante shift up from the chair behind me so I stepped out into the hall and decided that left would be my best option, since that's where he had come running from. We walked down the hall in silence. We were lost after a while and I sighed.

"You ran all the way to where I was, yet you can't remember your way back?"

"Well, I didn't run the _entire_ time," he said "that weird teleportation thing kicked in again."

We took another left turn. "Is that how you got to me yesterday?" I asked.

"Yes and thank God I did. Hey, there are voices this way,"

I followed him through a door that slid open for us and led into a slightly darker corridor that was lit up by natural light. We came to what I assumed was the ship's control center, seeing as it had many agents scuffling around and the entire front of the room were large windows. It was impressing, to say the least.

"Director Fury is cleared for take-off." One of the female agents called out.

At that moment, we saw a jet fly off into the distance. 'He could've at least waited for our answer.' I thought to myself. Dante had wondered off towards the agent.

He flashed an award winning smile. "Excuse me Miss, but where did Director Fury head off too?" he gestured to me with his hand; "my sister and I were to be under his care."

The woman blushed and avoided his gaze. "He and Agent Hill are off to address some business at our New Mexico headquarters. I'm sure they'll be back within the week. But if there's anything that you need, I'm sure you can just ask one of us and we'd be glad to help."

"I'll be sure to come to you then," he said. It looked as though her heart may have melted.

A ringing alarm sounded over the loudspeaker and the agents all stopped scurrying and sat around the computers.

"We're about to land the ship," the agent informed Dante. He nodded and turned back to me. I shrugged.

"Perhaps you could help us back to our rooms when your duties here are completed?" he asked.

She nodded and strode over to a computer as well. We watched through the window as the ship descended into the water.

* * *

**Woot! First chapter down!**

**I promise that you'll actually meet Bruce in the next one, so don't give up on me yet!**

**Reviews are always welcome =]**


	2. First Meeting

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything Marvel. I only own Alyss and Dante(who's kind of a douche)**

* * *

4 days later, Fury returned back to the Helicarrier. With him he had several agents and metallic boxes, which they hid away very quickly. Seeing as the director was nursing a wound, I figured that mine and Dante's answer could wait until it was asked for.

The days had gone by smoothly for us; we managed to stay out of trouble. We had small physical tests and blood samples be taken. Some of the agents loaned or gave us clothes, seeing as there wasn't a store in the middle of the ocean. We were given 3 meals a day and shown the training room (Dante particularly enjoyed that one). The pretty agent Dante had been talking too had even found time to teach us how to use the ship's computers. While all of this was fine and dandy, I more often than not could be found in my new room in the soft covers of my bed.

I don't know why, but the realness of the situation had hit me all at once. No more owing or borrowing money. No more running from bosses or fighting enemies. No more fires…

Fire. It scares me. While it's the one thing that reunited Dante and I, it's also what incinerated those people who held me captive. I couldn't differentiate the smell of burning upholstery from burning flesh. And their screams…

The door opened and I hid my head away from the sudden influx of light from the hallway. I could hear Date sigh and flick on the overhead light. I groaned.

"Stop being a vampire. You've been cramped in here for way too long."

"I came out for testing," I muttered and shoved my face deeper into my pillows.

"Yeah, but then you crawl back in here. Is there something wrong, why you are being so… Pathetic?"

I rolled over and winced at his form. He was in a pair of loose pants and a black wife beater, and judging by the sweat still beaded on his forehead, he had been training. He was holding a brown clipboard.

"Shut up. What do you want?"

Dante gave a small smile. "Well, while you've been moping around, I've been finding some things out. Like how we're getting new visitors tomorrow. Famous ones."

"Lovely," I said simply before slipping out of bed and towards my bathroom.

"You could at least pretend to be excited," he sighed. "Well, there's more. They gave me the results of our blood tests."

"You don't have some nasty STD, right?" I asked through a mouthful of toothpaste.

He chuckled lightly. "Oh no, but there is something interesting that they showed me. Apparently they attempted to track down our ethnicity in order to get closer to finding our origin, but, the results were inconclusive."

I stuck my head out the door at him and raised an eyebrow at him. He smiled back cheekily.

"The doctors were really scratching their head at that one."

I rolled my eyes, "I don't understand how you find that amusing. Having people walk up to you rambling in Spanish isn't the most comfortable thing in the world."

"You've been claiming to be Hispanic? I've been telling people we're Polynesian."

I washed my mouth out with water. "Polynesians don't have green eyes."

"Neither do Hispanics, unless they're really pale."

"Is that all you wanted?" I walked out of the bathroom and lay back down on my bed.

"I just want you to actually get up tomorrow and meet them. Natasha will be there too. Why is it that I'm doing all the work when you were the one who was all gung-ho about this crap in the beginning?" Dante headed back towards the door of my room.

"I'm a female, we function oddly."

"Whatever, I'm coming back tomorrow at 8, you better be up. And would you eat something for goodness sake? You're not _that_ fat."

He managed to close the door right as the clock hit where his head should've been.

* * *

I woke up bright and early the next morning and forced myself into the shower, where I then attempted to brush all of the knots that had gathered in my hair. When I got out, I went through my small collection of clothes and decided that a white button down blouse, which was about a size too large, and my reliable old jeans would be sufficient. There was no way I was going to wear those awful SHIELD uniform pants, way too dramatic, though I will consider their pencil skirts when I have something other than my boots to wear.

I could hear Dante's rhythmic footfalls coming down the hall. I could always tell when it was him, he walked like he dancing to a song.

I continued to brush my now dry and straightened hair as he let himself in. I skimmed his appearance and had to stifle a laugh. Many of the men here didn't have his broad shoulders, so he was forced to wear a t-shirt with some pizza brand blazing across the front that still restricted his arms a bit. He wore a pair of black slacks and his expensive black puma shoes that I bought him last year. His eyes rolled at me.

"Wanna trade shirts?" he offered.

I shook my head and set down the hairbrush. Dante noticed my hair and smiled.

"Wow, I can't remember the last time I saw it like that. You really want to impress some people huh?"

I pulled on my new socks and laughed. "You were the one who said we were getting some "famous" visitors. Thought I'd make a good first impression," I looked at his shirt again and scoffed. "Who are they, anyway?"

"Captain America and the Hulk."

I rolled my eyes at him.

"Ha-ha. Really though, who are they?"

Dante smiled cheekily. "I'm serious. They found Captain America frozen in a block of ice awhile back and he woke up. And they found the Hulk hiding out in India somewhere. Apparently they're not using him for fighting though, they need him to research some crap."

My jaw dropped and I stared up at him. He wasn't lying, that's for sure.

He tossed my boots at me and I caught them, snapping my jaw shut.

"Come on now, they'll be here in a while and the ship will be taking off in about 30 minutes. Now would be a good time to find Fury, don't you think?"

I nodded and laced my boots up.

* * *

We walked out onto the bridge, where the agents were scurrying around as usual. Fury stood behind two large screen computers, speaking to Agent Hill who noticed us first. Fury must have noticed her gaze and turned to look at us. Dante stepped ahead of me. 'He must still not like him much.'

"Well?" was all Fury said.

Dante nodded and Fury gave a small smile.

"Welcome to SHIELD then kids, take a seat."

He jerked his head towards the glass table with leather chairs surrounding it. I smiled at Dante and we sat down. Dante sighed and watched the agents. I looked out the window and noticed a jet come by, landing on the carrier no doubt. I began to steal glances at the door and at the guards. Fury began to initiate take off and still no one came through the doors. I grew a bit apprehensive and Dante sensed it. He placed a hand over my mine and muttered something under his breath. I could feel him exerting his power of suggestion over me and I grew calm. We heard the doors open and spun to face it.

Natasha walked in ahead of a tall blonde man who looked around the room in wonder and a black haired man in a brown suit. He didn't seem as impressed as the blonde man. They must be Captain America and the Hulk's… host? If that's what he would be called. Natasha walked right over to Fury and Captain America and the "host" separated and looked around the room. Captain America smiled as he looked around and I noticed the Hulk's host looking slightly annoyed at the guards, who kept their eyes trained on him.

"-Let's vanish." I caught Fury saying and I turned to face him.

Fury turned around and advanced towards the men.

"Gentlemen," he acknowledged. Captain America drifted past him, handing him a ten dollar bill while still looking around. Fury smirked and set the bill in his pocket. He then walked over to the host.

"Doctor, thank you for coming." He said, extending his hand out.

So this guy was a doctor too?

"Thanks for asking nicely," the doctor said hesitantly. "So, uh, how long am I staying?"

"Until we get our hands on the Tesseract,"

I looked over at Dante and he mouthed "I'll fill you in later". He really caught up on his reading, it seemed.

The doctor nodded absently. "Where are you with that?"

They began to speak about spectrometers and other sciency-stuff, so I turned to Dante.

"That whole filling in thing would be nice about now." I said.

"The Tesseract is a cube of unharnessed energy that emits gamma rays. Captain America over there risked his life to contain it; hence him turning into a human Popsicle and the doctor is an expert in gamma radiation, considering that was how the Hulk was created. Some strange guy from another dimension stole the cube though, along with a few agents and a doctor. So now they're trying to find them."

I raised an eyebrow at him.

"You would've known this if you hadn't locked yourself in your room. By the way, did you eat yet?"

Natasha and the doctor walked by us and stopped. She motioned over at us.

"This is Alyssandra and Dante, think of them as special recruits. They're new here too," she turned to us. "This is Dr. Bruce Banner; I'm sure you know of his achievements."

"-if you could call them that." Bruce muttered.

I stood and extended my hand.

"You can just call me Alyss," I smiled at him as warmly as possible. "I look forward to possibly working with you."

He smiled half-heartedly back and shook my hand before turning to Dante, who stood and shook his hand silently.

"Follow me. You're going to love it, Doc, we have all the toys." Natasha said as she walked off, Bruce close behind her.

I turned to glare at Dante but was only met with his own.

"Really? You couldn't have been less rude." I said.

He opened his mouth to argue but an agent and Captain America strode over to us next. Dante stood up immediately and I followed suit, still annoyed by his prior behavior.

He extended his hand out to Captain America first, introducing himself and praising the man. I rolled my eyes and turned to the agent, extending my own hand.

"I'm Alyss; I haven't seen you around before."

The agent laughed. "Director Fury has been assigning me to long term missions lately. Agent Phil Coulson, nice to meet you Alyss."

He shook my hand and Captain America moved on to me.

"I'm sorry about my brother," I began, extending my hand out to him. "He used to beat up the kids who tried to change the station from The Captain America cartoon at the orphanage. You're one of his idols. I'm Alyss." I ignored the glare Dante threw at me.

"Captain Steve Rogers, it's nice to meet you ma'am." He shook my hand gently, as if scared he would break it. "And, um, orphanage?"

"We'll have plenty of time to get to know each other Steve." I said, grinning at him.

"Or not." I heard Fury cut in.

"He's in Stuttgart, Germany. He's not exactly hiding." One of the agents said.

We all turned to Fury, who looked directly at Steve.

"Captain, you're up."

Steve nodded and he and Phil left the room.

"Director Fury," Dante said, walking over to him. "I would like to go as well."

"Me too!" I declared.

Dante whipped around, "No."

"Excuse me?"

I was hurt by his immediate denial.

"I almost lost you last time. I don't think I can protect you this time, especially not against this Loki guy. Besides, you're behind on tests."

"I can fend for myself you know. And we aren't going to even discuss how many times I've saved your ass too!"

Dante gripped my shoulder and looked back at Fury.

"Dante, you may go." He said and then turned back to his screens.

"WHAT?!" I was beyond pissed at this point.

Fury didn't bother to turn around. "Your brother is right; you haven't caught up on your tests. And so long as one of you is here, I know that the other won't leave without our notice."

I made a noise that could only be described as a hiss and a lab coat clad agent approached me. I walked away from my brother and Fury, furious.

* * *

I ripped the bandages off of my arms as I walked down the hall. The IV ports should be healed by now anyway. I sighed. I spent 2 hours being asked questions and getting poked and prodded. It took even longer because they made me calm down so they could take my blood pressure. I was irritated and lost. I should've accepted the agents' aid to get back to my room.

I wondered past a few agents, but my pride wouldn't let me ask them for help either. I came down another blinding white hall and noticed large windows show a large lab with computer screens all around. Bruce was in there, absently chewing on his nail and arranging data on one of the screens. I debated going in there and being sociable with him, but he didn't seem like a people person, since he effectively ignored me and Dante earlier. He looked over and noticed me in the window. I guess I was going to have to pay him a visit now.

I smiled and walked through the door.

"Alyss, right?" he greeted.

"Yeah, nice to see you again Doctor." I peered around at all of the strange looking objects around us.

He pushed up a pair of glasses on his nose. "You may call me Bruce."

"Ok then, Bruce." I continued to walk through the lab, careful to not touch anything.

The awkwardness ensued. I pretended to be considerably interested in a large brown contraption on one of the counters as he continued his work.

"Hey," I heard him say softly. I turned to look back at him, grateful that he broke the silence.

"I'm sorry if I seemed ill-mannered earlier. I'm just not too… over-joyed to be here."

"They 'persuaded' you too, huh?"

"Ms. Romanov is very good at persuading."

"Her persuasion is what landed me and Dante here as well."

We grew quiet again.

"So, what's your story?" he asked, not looking away from his work.

I leaned against a counter across from his.

"It's not a particularly interesting one," I warned.

"I'm sure I won't nod off."

I smiled and began, "Well, I guess it all started when we were infants. We grew up in an orphanage until," I gulped and decided to skip over a few parts. "We escaped. We discovered our abilities about that point and after several weeks, met some nice drifters and traveled with them for a year or two. They taught us some valuable lessons, like self-defense, how to get work, scavenging to an extent." I smiled lightly. "It was fun. We eventually left them and traveled across the county on our own. We hardly got by. We made it to the east coast and started working for different people. This is the part I'm not so proud of, but we started making pretty good money. A few days ago, we found ourselves in a compromising position and SHIELD stepped in. So that's how we got here, I suppose."

I looked up and saw Bruce staring at me. My face heated up and I grew self-conscious. I shouldn't have eaten today.

"That's quite a story," he said. "Not at all boring."

I coughed awkwardly.

"So, uh, do you think I could know yours? Your story, I mean."

He smiled sadly, "Maybe one day."

Smooth, Alyss, real smooth.

"So," he said. "How old are you Alyss?"

"Approximately 20." I said bashfully.

His eyes widened. "You're… young. And why approximately?"

I laughed nervously. "No birth certificate. And the orphanage wasn't very good about making up birthdays. So I decided mine would be on July 18th."

"Any special reason why?"

"I remember watching the news and they talked about Nelson Mandela's birthday being on that day. I thought he was cool, so I went for it." My face heated up again and I laughed. "It sounds dorky, I know, but I was kid."

"It doesn't sound dorky at all; it sounds like you were a very attentive child." Bruce smiled at me and I had to force myself to look away.

"When you say that, it makes me feel like you think I still am a child."

"No, no! That's not it at all. It's just relative to me, you kind of are." He noticed my confused expression. "You're half my age."

I chomped down on my tongue in an attempt to keep my jaw from dropping. He didn't seem that old when I had first looked at him, but now I noticed the light graying at his temples. Not to mention that he was a **doctor**, it must've taken him years to reach that level. I shouldn't have been looking at him the way I was – NOT that I was checking him out or anything, that's inappropriate in itself.

God, I'm even thinking like a child.

"Alyss?"

Bruce's voice caught my attention. I looked up and realized I hadn't said anything.

"Hm?"

"I hope I didn't insult you or anything."

"Oh no! Not at all! I just got caught up in my own thoughts is all." I realized how strange my words sounded and attempted to cover it up. "SO, what are you working on there?"

He looked back to his screen. "Well I'm attempting to track the Tesseract, but I'm also trying to clean up this set up they have on these computers. Whoever was in here last didn't have much consideration for others. Everything's in a mess."

"Some work better in clutter, I suppose." I said.

"Well, I do too sometimes, but it depends on the type of clutter." He slid an icon over and it shot to another computer screen.

"Hey, do you think I can help you in any sort of way?" I offered. I might as well be of some sort of use while I'm here.

He nodded, "You can actually, come here," he motioned me over with his hand.

I walked towards him and the computer and faced the screen.

"You see this?" he pointed towards an opened file that had a bunch of documents with name with a bunch of jumbled letters and numbers. I nodded, trying to concentrate on his words rather than our proximity to each other. "Everything that has 'AV46' in the name needs to go in this folder," he said pointing to another folder. "And everything that has either 'LL' or 'TO' needs to go in this folder."

I nodded and he left my side to go to another computer behind me. I bit back my frown and began to work. We worked in silence for several minutes until I came to a document that I didn't know what to do with.

"Bruce?" I asked timidly.

He grunted in response.

"What should I do with this one?"

I heard him move and he loomed over my shoulder. The blood shot up to my face for what seemed like the hundredth time that day.

"Hmm," the sound resounded through my body like vibrations. I silently cursed at myself for being so sensitive.

"I'll take this one." He said and slid the document in an upwards motion, where it ended up at his computer. "You work fast," I looked up at him and he smiled. "You'd make a great secretary."

I kept my dirty thoughts to myself.

I finished my work and sat on the counter, making myself comfortable. We made small talk and after a while, I had forgotten why I had been so upset in the first place. Then I heard footsteps, a lot of them.

"What's wrong?" Bruce asked, noticing how quiet I grew.

"There are people coming. It sounds like they're armed." I said judging by the clanking of metal I heard. I slid off the counter anxiously and rounded over to his side.

He didn't ask how I heard them but instead trained his eyes on the window. I followed suit.

The men turned the corner, leading a prisoner. I could only assume that it was Loki, judging by his strange clothes. Bruce slid off his glasses as we observed him. Loki looked back at us, his eyes scanning our forms. He eyes stopped at Bruce's face and an eerie smile crept on his. As soon as Loki was out of our sight, I turned to Bruce, who was rubbing his eyes.

"Should I ask?"

He shook his head, "You know about as much as I do."

We stood in silence for several more seconds.

"We should find the others." He said and headed for the door. I stuck close behind him, trying to shake the prisoner's creepy gaze from my mind.

* * *

**I actually enjoyed writing this one quite a bit. I know, I made Alyss kind of immature in this one but she is only 20 you know, and didn't exactly have parents.**

**Did I make Bruce too out of character? Leave a review and tell me please!**

**There's going to be a lot of movie quoting for awhile, but I'll try to break it up some.**

**Thanks for reading! And I ****_really _****do enjoy reviews and favorites.**


	3. Time Bomb

**Hey guys! I know, its been FOREVER since I updated, but when the chapter you're writing is half full of movie dialogue, it gets tedious. Speaking of which, since it is full of movie dialogue, I made it twice as long to make up for it. See? I care about you guys! The story line is also going to be changing up a bit, but I promise its worth it.  
Disclaimer: The Avengers are property of Marvel. I only own Alyss and Dante(who's a real ass)**

* * *

Bruce and I walked in silence, opposite the way Loki and the guards had gone. I could tell that we were getting closer to the bridge. I heard the agents; they were murmuring and typing away on their computers. We took a left and walked through the door, where we found Natasha, Steve, and Dante sitting in the leather chairs and a tall muscular man with long blonde hair standing, they were all looking at screens. Dante looked up at me and his eyebrows rose in alarm at me standing next to Bruce. I quickly sat in the chair to the left of his and Bruce peered over the back off the chair directly in front of him. Dante shot me an angered look but I pretended to be more interested in the agents who scuffled around quietly.

"In case it's unclear," I heard Fury say. I looked down at my screen. "You try to escape; you so much as scratch that glass."

He pressed a few buttons on the control board in front of him and a large hole opened beneath the chamber Loki was in. Loki walked towards the glass and peered down.

"30,000 feet, straight down in a steel trap!" Fury yelled over the wind. "You get how that works?!"

He closed the hole. "Ant. Boot." He motioned to each respectively.

I saw Dante smirk; he must be getting to like Fury now. I think I was too.

Loki laughed darkly, "It's quite an impressive cage. Not, I think, built for me."

I think I knew who it was built for, but I kept my eyes down and mouth shut.

"Built for something a lot stronger than you."

"Oh I've heard." My heart skipped a beat as he looked directly at the security camera. "A mindless beast, who makes play that he's still a man." Loki smirked slyly.

I kept my eyes focused on the screen, but out of my peripheral I noticed Bruce shift uncomfortably.

Loki moved around the cage a bit. "How desperate are you? You call on such lost creatures to defend you!"

"How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk about peace, and you kill because it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

I cheered for Fury inside my head. He must've put on his bad ass eye patch today because he was working it!

"It burns you to have come so close." Loki sneered. "To have the Tesseract, to have power, _unlimited _power; and for what?" he looked again at the camera. "A warm light for all of mankind to share?"

I looked up now, uneasily. Steve's expression matched mine.

"And then to be reminded what real power is."

Fury sauntered away from the cage, towards the door. "Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something."

Loki looked towards the camera again and the transmission was cut. We all looked up at one another.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Bruce joked. I rolled my eyes and Dante chuckled lightly.

Steve heaved a sigh. "Loki is going to drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?"

The tall blonde man, Thor, I guessed, spoke without turning away from the now blank screen.

"He has an army called the Chitauri," I couldn't place his accent, but it was definitely foreign. "In the realm of Asgard, very well known."

Thor turned around and I admired at the man's beauty. He had on strange armor like clothes and extremely muscular arms.

"He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth. In return, I expect, for the Tesseract."

"An army." Steve said. "From outer space."

I could tell that Steve was just about done with living in our time.

"So they're building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for." Bruce gathered.

Thor turned to Bruce. "Selvig?"

"He's an astrophysicist."

"He's a friend."

"Ah yeah, that's right," Dante said, leaning back in his chair. "He has him under some sort of spell."

"Along with one of ours," Natasha inputted quietly.

"I want to know why Loki let us take him." Steve said, glancing at everyone.

"Yeah, even he packs a mean punch; he can't lead much of an army from in here." Dante yawned. I noticed a bruise blooming on his cheek.

"I don't think we should be concentrating on that, that guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him." Bruce said, staring at where the screen used to be uneasily. I smiled and held back a giggle.

"Have care how you speak," Thor said, coming towards the table. "Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard; and he's my brother."

What a joy kill.

"He killed 80 people in 2 days." Natasha said nonchalantly.

Thor froze. "He is adopted."

"I think it's about the mechanics," Bruce continued. "Iridium. What do they need the Iridium for-"

"It's a stabilizing agent." Interrupted a voice. We turned to see the famous Tony Stark waltz in with Phil beside him. He muttered something to Phil, who nodded and smiled in response.

This guy was definitely shorter than he looked on TV.

"Portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD." He took the whole room in, and then each of us. He sauntered over to Thor, looking up at him. "No hard feelings, Point Break, you have a mean swing." He tapped Thor's arm. Dante gave me a 'don't ask' look.

"Also, means the portal can open as wide and as long as Loki wants," Tony traveled over to Fury's computers and began to tamper with them. Agent Hill glared at him but he effectively ignored it. "Uh, raise the misting mass. Ship the top sails."

The agents looked up at him questionably and a few even scoffed and ignored him.

Tony didn't notice. "That man is playing Gallagha! He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did."

Dante let out a laugh, although no one joined him. Tony clasped a hand over his left eye and looked around, making a comment about Fury's eye. He then began muttering about the power source as he looked through Fury's notes. My ears picked up some small contraption clicking into place as he turned around.

"Something to kick start the cube." He said turning and catching my accusing gaze. I motioned with my eyes at the source of the click, but he looked avoided my glance.

"When did you become an expert at thermonuclear astrophysics?" Agent Hill asked warily.

Jesus that was a mouthful.

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, extraction theory papers; am I the only one who did the reading?"

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked

"He would have to heat the cube to 120 million Kelvin just to break the cooling barrier." Bruce said as he paced.

"-Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum theorem effect-"

"-Well, if he could do that then he could achieve heavy ion fusion in any reactor on the planet."

"Finally!" Tony declared walking over to Bruce and extending his hand. "Someone who speaks English."

"Is that what just happened?" Steve asked. Yup, he was done.

"Your guess is as good as mine Bro." Dante said.

I smiled softly to myself. I couldn't remember the last time I was around people with such high intellect, if ever.

"It's good to meet you Doctor Banner. Your work on antielectricparacollisions is unparalleled; and I'm a huge fan of how you turn into an enormous green rage monster."

I winced at Tony's lack of tact. I've been around those type of people too.

"Thanks." Bruce replied half-heartedly.

"Doctor Banner is only here to track the cube." Fury said while walking into the room. "I was hoping you might join him."

"Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon." Steve said, trying to be of some use.

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube, and I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn 2 of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys? I don't understand." Thor asked, obviously lost.

"I do!" Steve cut in. "I understood that reference."

An awkward silence ensued.

"Shall we play, Doctor?" Tony asked Bruce.

Bruce nodded, "This way Sir." He stopped and looked back at me, "Alyss?"

I smiled, he remembered me. I felt Dante's hand shoot out to grasp my knee under the table and his glare bore into the back of my head. I tapped his hand lightly and stood up before following the men out of the room.

Once we got a safe distance away from the room, Tony looked back at me.

"So, I haven't heard about you before. What's your story?"

Bruce chuckled lightly. "This is Alyss; she just came here several days ago. They convinced her in much of the same fashion as they did me."

"Ah, are you able to rip them in half too?"

I laughed nervously, "No, no at all. It's just that my brother and I weren't the best people before, so they brought us in and promised not to shoot or arrest us so long as we became their guinea pigs."

"Oh SHIELD, the Mother Theresa of intelligence organizations." Tony joked.

We rounded the corner and walked into the lab. Tony whistled.

"Nice little place they gave us here. Though it could use more glam."

Bruce went over his computer. "I found more files for you, Alyss."

I nodded and stood in front of my screen, where he then sent the files over to.

Tony looked over at my screen.

"Filing? They gave you your own sexy secretary Bruce?"

Mine and Bruce's cheeks visibly grew a few shades darker.

"I'd be careful," Tony said. "Of my last two, one became my girlfriend and the other one ended up being Natasha Romanov." He moved on to another computer and I looked over at him.

"So, when are you going to explain what you did to Fury's computer?" I asked.

He raised an eyebrow at me, "OK, I seriously need a list of your powers." His computer made a small dinging noise. "Oh, here they are."

I rolled my eyes at him.

"Genius-level intellect, superhuman strength, durability, superhuman hearing, healing factor, stamina, and reflexes. Charming. Oh and Dante must be your brother. Superhuman strength, durability, healing factor, stamina, agility, and reflexes, levitation, power of suggestion, energy blasts, and slight indications of teleportation." He looked over at me. "Why don't you have any 'mystical' powers?"

"Good question, remind me to ask my parents."

"Ah, that's right, poor little orphan Alyss-"

"Tony," Bruce cut in. They shared a look and Tony decided to keep his comment to himself.

He leaned over Bruce's counter, where they inspected Loki's staff and I continued my filing.

* * *

"The gamma radiation is definitely consistent with Selvig's reports of the Tesseract, but it'll take weeks to process." Bruce said.

I had finished my filing and was now watching Bruce scan Loki's spear.

"If we bypass their main frame and make a direct route to their home requester-"

I blanked out at this point. I was able to understand most of what they were saying and other parts I got the gist of, but now it was just ridiculous and tiring to attempt to keep up with them. I rested my head on my hands and starred at the glowing spear. It looked like something out of a comic book. I looked up when I heard Bruce chuckle.

"All I packed was a toothbrush." He said.

Tony laughed and walked over to a nearby computer. "You know you should come by Stark Tower some time. Top 10 floors is nothing but all R and D, you'd love it. It's candy land." He then turned to look at me, "And don't worry, Daddy Warbucks here will be sure to have a floor of toys built just for you." I chose to hold my tongue.

"Thanks, but last time I was in New York I kind of broke… Harlem." Bruce grimaced.

I stood up straight and Tony smiled at him. "Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No surprises." He then poked Bruce hard in the side a mechanized screw-driver, which made him yelp and me jump. "Nothing?" Tony asked, bewildered as Bruce grasped his side.

"HEY!" I heard two voices shout. We turned as Steve and Dante walked in angrily. Dante walked around the table and snatched me away from Tony and Bruce. I made an annoyed noise.

"Are you nuts?" Steve asked sternly.

"You really have a lid on that thing don't you?" Tony said, ignoring Steve. "What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? A huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked his glare holding.

"Funny you should ask."

"Threatening the safety of my sister isn't funny," Dante growled, not releasing his death-grip on my arm.

"Or the safety of the entire ship. No offense Doc." Steve said, looking at Bruce apologetically.

"It's alright; I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things." Bruce went back to his work quietly.

I managed to break free of Dante's grasp and I glared at him.

"We have to talk," he hissed.

"You need to go sit down and think about how you're going to apologize." I retorted and his eyebrows tightened.

"Apologize? You're the one who's been acting like a pre-pubescent girl the entire time we've been on this ship!"

"Oh please, you've acting like one you're entire life. I've just finally gotten tired of cleaning up after your shit!" I said, voice dripping with acid.

His eyes widened at my comment, but then narrowed. "Who saved your ass last week, huh? Who saved you from those sickos 8 years ago?! Maybe I should've left you there longer, you would've been more appreciative then!"

I lost it. I slapped him hard across the face before he could dodge.

"You're an ass Dante." I whimpered as angry tears welled up in my eyes.

"Hey now…" Steve said, taking a step forward.

"No, no; let them focus on their own family issues." Tony interrupted.

"And you need to focus on our problem Mr. Stark." Steve said sternly.

"You think I'm not?"

Dante glared at me, holding his cheek. "Who knew it would take all this attention to change you. I thought I raised you better."

I walked right up to him. We were practically nose to nose.

"And I thought you cared."

His hand twitched and then tightened into a fist.

"We can handle this in the training room of you want." I challenged.

"You're a bitch but you know I'd never hit you."

"Because you can't, I'm too fast for you."

"You're a dirty fighter, that's all."

"You're scared. That's why you made me go in first last week, in the middle of a factory filled with armed men. You knew you would've gotten destroyed, but since I'm a little faster, I wouldn't have as many bullets through me. What if that creature had gotten me huh? You don't care for anyone but yourself." He glared down at me in silence. "Sometimes I wish you never made it out of the fire."

He stared for a second longer before stomping angrily out of the room. I turned back towards Bruce, Tony, and Steve, who were still arguing. Bruce was looking towards me, obviously concerned.

"…It's bugging him too, isn't it?" Tony said, turning to Bruce.

Bruce snapped out of his daze and looked between the two men. "Ahhh, I just want to finish my work here, and uh-"

"Doctor?" Steve pressed.

I took a seat in the chair next to Bruce and buried my face into my arms. I heard Bruce sigh.

"A warm light for all mankind, Loki's jab at Fury about the cube,"

"I heard it."

"Well I think it was meant for you," Bruce said, directing his answer towards Tony. I heard the sound of a Tony's plastic bag rustling. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still on the news."

"The Stark Tower? That big ugly-" Steve paused upon seeing the look Tony threw his way. "-Building in New York."

"It's powered by the arc reactor, a self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?"

"It's just the prototype." Tony replied proudly.

"So why did SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"I should probably look into that."

Bruce took a seat next to me and gently placed a hand on my shoulder as the two men continued their argument.

"Hey," he said softly. I reveled in the warmth and weight of his hand and sighed softly. "Are you ok?"

I shook my head and he scooted closer to wrap his arm around both of my shoulders.

"Of the people in this room who is A: wearing a spangley outfit and B: not of use?" I heard Tony ask.

"Steve," I again felt Bruce's voice resonate through my form. It was calming and I resisted the impulse to bury my face into his chest. "Tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?"

"Just find the cube." Steve said. I could hear him trudge off through the door. I'll be able to remember his footfalls now; they were a perfect and precise rhythm, a march.

"That's the guy my dad never shut up about?" Tony asked, taking the seat to the right of me. "I wonder if they should've kept him on ice. So then Princess, what did your brother say to you? That we're bad influences and you can't go to the dance?"

I sat up and wiped at my eyes with the sleeve of my shirt. Bruce's arm fell from my shoulders. I shouldn't have moved.

"He's just being sort of jerk." I said curtly.

"Judging by the slap you gave him, he was being more than that." Tony said, wrapping his arm around the back of my chair. "Be honest now, what did he say?"

"Tony, don't push it." Bruce said. I appreciated it.

"Trust me when I say that it's good to know everything about your secretary. Like I said earlier, girlfriend and Natasha Romanov."

Bruce sighed.

"It's nothing you guys. Honestly," I reassured them. "We don't fight often, so when we do, it gets a little out of hand. So can we drop it?"

"Anything for you," Tony cooed and stood up. "Back to work, Doctor Banner."

Bruce gave me another sympathetic look before standing up and typing away on his computer.

I laid my head back down on my arms as they spoke to each other and eventually, I fell asleep.

* * *

I awoke to Bruce gently shaking my shoulder. "Hey, Alyss."

"Hmm," I sat up slowly and noticed that the sky had lightened outside. We were in the lab all night.

"Maybe you should retire to your room now." He offered.

"I suggested it a few hours ago, but you look so pretty when you're sleeping." Tony said. "Bruce said that, by the way."

Bruce shot a glare at him.

"I told you I was going to say it."

I stood up and rolled my eyes at them.

"I think I will go back now." I yawned.

"What? You're just going to pretend that you didn't hear a word I said? That's cold Alyss."

I stretched and headed towards the door.

"I'll see you later Bruce,"

"Alyss! Is this your way of playing hard to get? Daddy Warbucks won't get you that pony you've been wanting at this rate."

I smirked. "_Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I'll love ya, tomorrow; you're always a day away!_"

I heard him laughing wildly as I exited down the hall.

I soon found myself in the same predicament as before, I was lost. I walked around the empty halls until I came past a door with a distinctly female voice behind it. It belonged to Natasha. When I heard the male voice respond, my heart nearly stopped. She was speaking to Loki. I stood next to the door and listened intently.

"… You brought the monster." Loki's voice growled.

"So, Banner, that's your play?" she responded.

I put two and two together; Loki was going to use the Hulk I had to tell Bruce. I gained a sudden remembrance of the route I took and raced down the halls. I stopped at the door to the lab and almost fell over.

"Alyss?" Bruce asked, confused.

"I knew she'd come crawling back." Tony said threw a mouthful of blueberries.

"You have to leave Bruce," I panted, supporting myself on a shelf.

"Calm down," he said and walked towards me. "What's wrong? Why do I have to leave?"

"Yes, why does he have leave?"

I turned at the sound of Fury's voice and straightened as much as possible.

"Oh, hey there Nick." Tony said, turning Fury's attention away from me.

"Mr. Stark, what do you think you're doing?"

Bruce gripped me by the forearm and looked me in the eyes. "What's going on Alyss?"

"I overheard Loki and Natasha," I whispered quickly. "He's going to use the Hulk."

"What?"

My eyes widened and the sound of Steve's and Dante's footsteps. "Oh no."

"So what is Phase 2?" Tony asked Fury.

Steve and Dante stepped into the room holding a large gun, which Steve slammed onto a counter.

"Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons," Steve said.

"Sorry, but the computer was moving a little slow." Dante said, avoiding looking my way.

"We gathered everything relating to the Tesseract, this does not mean –"

"Sorry Nick," Tony interrupted, turning his screen around. "What were you lying?"

Thor and Natasha entered through the doorway. Natasha looked directly towards me.

"Alyss, move. You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment Doctor?"

Bruce rounded the table ahead of me, letting go of my arm.

"I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed." He said dryly.

"Loki is manipulating you."

"And you're doing what exactly?"

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."

"Yes and I'm not leaving because you suddenly get a little bit twitchy."

I saw Dante's eyes move from Bruce to me. He gave me a pleading, almost alarmed, look. I looked from Bruce to my brother and couldn't help but to grow anxious as well, as the individuals argued. I took a few small steps around the table, simulating trying to see the computer screen.

"…We learned that not only are we not alone but we are hopelessly, _hilariously,_ out gunned."

"By people who want nothing but peace with your planet." Thor snapped.

"You're not the only threat. The world is filling up with people who can't be matched. Who can't be controlled. If we hadn't gotten to Dante and Alyss when we did, they probably would've ended up as powerful enemies to us."

"So you clip our wings before we can fly," I inputted. "Did you really plan to just stick us in a cage so we could be controlled?"

"What were we really your guinea pigs for? To help test the cube?" Dante asked. His hands turned into fists at his sides.

Thor stepped forward. "Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is a signal to the rest of the universe the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"You forced our hand, we had to come up with –"

"A nuclear deterrent, because that always calms everything right down." Tony interrupted in his sarcastic style, shoving his hands into his pockets.

I watched in disgust as they all argued. Did everyone forget why they were here? Loki was still locked away in the other room wasn't he? We were still tracking the cube, but we were acting like children. I gripped the end of the table tightly. The sound of so many voices at once was exasperating, but my sudden onslaught of meekness wouldn't allow me to say anything. I glared at the golden rod in front of me, at its ethereal blue power source. Such a small thing caused so much-

I wasn't seeing the room in anymore, or the staff. Instead I wondered around clumsily in an unknown blurry place. There was movement around me, people, but they didn't seem to notice my presence. I confusedly drifted about and came to the front of what I assumed was a large plane or helicopter. The two pilots were steering against harsh winds. I went back the way I came and saw an older man laughing as he closed a glowing cube inside of a box. There was also a man in a holding a bow and quiver full of arrows standing next to him. I suddenly grew aware of my circumstances. How was I doing all this?

I shot back to the room and the air escaped my lungs. I blinked hard and looked up to the group who had fallen silent. Dante stared at me, having noticed the disruption in my behavior. I looked up at him but didn't know what to say. I caught a strange noise, or at least I thought I did; it was being disturbed by the wind outside. I was brought back by Bruce's voice.

"…I got low. I didn't see an end so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out." Bruce described it as though he tasted every word that left his mouth. "I moved on, I focused on helping other people, I was good until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk. You wanna know my secret Agent Romanov? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

At that point Dante strode over to me silently and grasped my shoulder. No one seemed to notice, they all had their eyes trained on Bruce. Then I saw why.

"Dr. Banner, put down the scepter." Steve commanded.

Bruce flinched and looked down at his hand that held the scepter. His eyes widened, he had grabbed it unconsciously. One of the computers made a ringing sound and we all looked over at it. Bruce set down the scepter and walked to the computer.

"Sorry kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all." Bruce said sourly.

"You've located the Tesseract?" Thor asked.

The room erupted again in voices speaking over each other. I looked up at my brother to meet his questioning gaze. He led me closer to the door, anxious to leave but I planted my feet down, wanting to see what would happen next.

"I don't know what happened – It was like I left the ship and –"I paused. The noise had gotten louder, and was more frantic sounding. Something was definitely out there, but I couldn't tell where. Stupid wind.

"Alyss? You left to where?" Dante asked. I shushed him and closed my eyes, trying to get past the voices and the wind's disruption.

It was outside the window. And it wasn't just any noise.

"DANTE!" I screamed. I grabbed his arm and made a run for the door as the others looked at us. Then the room exploded.

I didn't have time to scream as we flew through the air. I hit the floor in the hallway and the air escaped my stomach. I coughed and felt a pair of arms pull me up into a sitting position. I winced and opened my eyes. Steve loomed over me, looking down the hall as Tony ran by.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"Where's Dante?" I heaved.

He looked next to me and I followed his gaze. My brother lay there in a crumpled heap.

"Steve!" Tony called from the down the hall.

"I'll be fine, you can go." I began to crawl towards Dante. Steve looked at both of us once more before running down the hall to catch up with Tony.

My head was spinning. The amount of sound that hovered in from everywhere didn't help. I made it to Dante's side and fell against the wall. I examined him from the corner of my eye. His face was banged up and little drops of blood had begun bleeding through his shirt from where glass had hit him. An agent ran by but paused at seeing us, I waved him off. Dante and I have been through worse; though the threat of being inside a giant ship falling out of the sky was pretty far up there on the shitty situation list.

Fury limped out from the destroyed room, cursing under his breath. He looked at the two of us before speaking.

"How bad does it hurt?"

I scoffed, "I'll live. He's a little too tired to feel much right now."

Fury bent down by us and handed me a gun.

"Then you can help. Come on." He began to pull Dante's right side up by the shoulder and I positioned myself into a squat to lift his other side. Though Dante was reasonably easy for me to lift, the height difference between Fury and I made it awkward. Dante's left foot dragged on the floor as we maneuvered to the control room.

I heard an earth-shaking roar come from below me and tripped over a step. Fury stopped and looked at me.

"I think the Hulk has been let out." I gasped. He gritted his teeth and faced forward.

"Hurry up then,"

We turned another corner and a rush of agents came by. 3 stopped and 2 took Dante away from us. Fury rushed into the control room and began shouting orders. The third agent began asking me questions and I growled at him. He stopped and left after that.

I came into the control room and leaned against the wall. I sighed and tried to calm myself. I'd heal faster that way. I regained as much composure as I could muster and I walked over to Fury's side.

"Director, what can I do?" I asked.

"Find the Hulk, help contain him if possible. Leave the situation if you can't." he said without looking at me.

Agent Hill's eyes widened, "You want her to engage the Hulk?"

"She and her brother aren't human and are damn near indestructible, she can handle it." He turned this time to meet my confused expression. "Tell me his location and I'll send your brother to meet you when he wakes up. Go."

I nodded and ran down the hall. I could hear his roars from down below and I shoved agents out of the way. I heard shooting but ignored it, it wasn't my orders. I came to an elevator shaft that had been blown open. I peered down, but it was too dark to see the end. The Hulk's roars rumbled the entire cavern. 'This might be the only way for me to get to him.'

I gulped and jumped down. After a 2 second fall (that felt more like 10), my feet met the top of the elevator. I took out Fury's gun and shot apart the bolts that held a section of the roof together. I entered the now swinging elevator from there and raced into a room filled with jets in repair. I saw Thor go flying across the room and heard a thunderous roar. I saw the intercom and made a run for it.

"Thor and the Hulk are on Research level 4." I said. The room grew silent, and I could hear the Hulk's panting. He heard me. I steadied my gun in front of me and inched to the side before settling behind a crate. I listened carefully. The Hulk stopped breathing. That wasn't good.

The crates beside me blew apart suddenly as the Hulk crashed threw them, eyes landing on me. I jumped up and discarded the gun, knowing it would do me no good. I was hit by the end of his hand and flew across the room towards the large window. I hit the floor and tumbled to a stop. His footsteps were nearing and as I looked up, his fists came down. I winced, waiting for impact, but the hits never came. The Hulk let out another enraged roar. I looked up and saw a translucent green force field around me. The Hulk continued to pound his fists on it and I grew weak. 'Am I the one doing this?'

"Bruce! Stop it!" I screamed at the large creature.

He didn't let up his relentless barrage of hits. I struggled to stand and he slowed, but only slightly.

"You need to calm down!" I shouted. He was beginning to tire and was breathing hoarsely, like a child throwing a temper tantrum. I held my hands out in front of me to get his attention. He slowly stopped, but still held a scowl while looking at me.

"Bruce, Hulk, whoever you are,"-Ok, not the greatest way to address him -"You need to calm down. It's Alyss, remember me?"

He huffed.

"I helped you, remember? Just please, settle down."

I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. Trying to reason with a giant, green, rage monster was not on my schedule today. Thor suddenly came flying back into the room and smashed the Hulk over the head with his hammer. My force field shimmered away and I followed the path of destruction that they had made. Thor had laid his hammer onto the Hulk's chest, who was in too much of a daze to fight back. I heard Dante before I saw him. He ran in, entering the same why that I had. He looked at the three of us before crouching next to the Hulk's head. He hesitantly placed a hand on his forehead before muttering some words.

I saw the Hulk's form begin to shrink and Thor removed his hammer from his chest. I turned away and blushed, turning to look away from Bruce's now mostly naked form on the floor.

"What sort of craft was that?" Thor asked Dante.

"I 'suggested' that he should calm down."

Before Thor could respond, the ship began to slant. Dante and I fell over immediately, but Thor only fell into a crouch. He hit a large crate that was falling and it shattered apart, weapons flying everywhere. We struggled back onto our feet.

"We have to get Bruce back to the bridge," I said.

Dante picked up Bruce's unconscious form and threw him over his shoulder.

"You go then; I must find my brother." Thor said. He took off towards the other side of the level.

Dante and I located the stairs, and began to ascend upwards, although at an angle, to the control room's floor.

"You know, I must really love you if I'm caring your naked boyfriend for you." Dante said.

I sighed, agitated. "He's not my boyfriend. And thank you."

"Hey, about what I said before, you know I was only trying to protect you from something like this."

I stayed quiet.

"I know I have a shitty way of showing it lately, but I love you, you know? It's just been confusing lately and, well, I don't know how to deal with things. I didn't mean what I said either, about leaving you behind." I heard him sigh. "I'm really sorry. Really, I'll make it up to you somehow."

I stopped. "If you really want to make it up to me, you'll apologize to Bruce." I said without turning around.

He sighed. "Yeah, I'll apologize."

I began to move again and he followed suit.

"I mean a real apology too."

"I know."

We continued up the stairs for what seemed like forever. The sounds of gun shots and general panic ceased and the ship eventually straightened. We made it to the main floor and saw agents carrying the wounded. A few came over and took Bruce away on a stretcher cautiously. I stared after them but Dante grasped my hand and pulled me away. We walked to the control room, where we were shuffled in by medics who were eager to be sure we were okay. Dante shooed them off and we sat down in the leather chairs in the uncharacteristically quiet room. I leaned my head down onto the table and closed my eyes, trying to erase the sight and sounds of the wounded and possibly deceased being carried out of the room.

Dante squeezed my hand and I felt calmness rush over me.

* * *

**Whew, that was a mission! I hope you liked it though!**

**I love reviews, just throwing it out there.**


	4. Forces of Nature

**Hey guys, sorry its been so long! I've had lovely college papers interfering with this story...**

* * *

We all have instincts. It's in our nature to do certain things. We breathe so that we won't suffocate, eat so we won't starve, and yawn when we're tired. We blush when we're embarrassed and cry when we're upset. We're all driven to do these things by some sort of force of nature. Yet, in this moment, I felt like that force couldn't decide what to do with me.

After seeing Steve, Tony, and Thor wander into the control room with Fury, all looking more defeated than ever, I decided to take my leave. I didn't want to hear any more bad news. Dante let go of my hand that he had been grasping onto for the past 45 minutes willingly and didn't argue or give me any sideways glances, he just let me leave. I walked through the particularly quiet halls of the Helicarrier numbly, not caring where I ended up at. They announced that we would be landing for repairs over the intercom. As I turned down another hallway, I noticed Natasha leaning against the wall.

She looked up and her eyes met mine. I noticed a large bruise blossoming on her cheek but I tried to keep my eyes trained on hers as I approached. I stood next to her and then sat down against the wall.

"I've had better days at the office," she joked bitterly.

"I would hope so. I haven't even been here a week and all hell already broke loose."

"'All hell' is actually behind that door."

I looked up at her, confused. She walked across the hall to one of the many doors and I rose back up and followed. She cracked the door open and I peered through. I could see Bruce from the small amount of light that showed from the hallway. He was hooked to wires and an IV and was fast asleep.

"It's hard to think that a man like him could become something so… cataclysmic." She said softly.

I tore my eyes away from his form and walked back into the hall.

"You calmed him down right? You and your brother?" Natasha had taken her spot back on the wall.

"Kind of. Well, Thor had to smash him over the head with that hammer of his to get him in a daze before Dante had him power down. News travels fast, huh?"

"Maybe. I'm a spy, I always keep my ears open."

I nodded and we fell into silence again. That is, until a low rumble emitted from my stomach. I reddened and looked up at Natasha, who wore a small smile. It looked foreign to her face, but gorgeous nonetheless.

"Hey," she said softly. "Let's go see if the cafeteria is in order yet. We can get some food for us and for Dr. Banner and Agent Barton." She noticed my confused look. "Barton, he was compromised by Loki, but he's back now."

"Ah."

I trailed behind her as she led the way to the cafeteria. I saw other agents trudging to and from the same direction, and they shuffled around us. Most of them kept their eyes down and avoided Natasha, not so much as glancing at her, perhaps out of fear or respect. I took a look at the woman ahead of me, she was perfect. I felt a pang of jealousy when I noticed her figure and posture. If she wasn't one of the deadliest women in existence, she'd make a killer model. Then again, she may be a little too short for that.

Look at me, trying to find fault in her to satiate my own esteem issues. God.

I mean, I know that I'm not obese or anything and that I've lost weight, but I just don't look _good_. I wish I was like Dante, who had a six pack without even really working out. On our missions, I did a lot of the physical stuff, but my tummy was still fleshy. For the longest time, I just wanted to look like the girls on the billboards I saw back when Dante and I were in LA. They were perfect with their collar bones and long slender necks. I had calloused hands and one weird toenail that kind of grew to the left.

At some point when I was caught up in my esteem issues, Natasha had called my name. I looked up at her and blinked.

"What?"

"Do you have enough clothes? The ones you've been wearing seem pretty battered."

I glanced down at myself. I tore a hole in my jeans and my blouse was stained beyond washing. I could feel my roots beginning to curl from sweat.

"Well," I began, growing conscious. "I have some in my room, but a lot of the pants they gave me were a little small. I've been sticking with these as much as I could get away with."

She nodded and we turned into the cafeteria.

"Since we're landing, we should go get some for you."

I felt myself get a little giddy. The girly girl in me LOVED shopping. Shopping with Natasha would be interesting, to say the least. I wondered if she wore her uniform while shopping.

The cafeteria was filled with low conversation and battered agents. A few looked up at us but most kept focus on their activities. I stuck close behind Natasha as she ordered and tried to keep my eyes from wandering. I couldn't stop from hearing every last bit of conversation though.

"-Coulson did a number on-"

"-Thor destroyed a level with-"

"-their guns were-"

"-Loki tricked a few-"

I sighed heavily as Natasha turned to me and handed me two trays.

"Is it hard?" she asked as we made our way out of the large room.

"Is what hard?"

"Being able to hear so much. I'm sure it gets inconvenient at times."

She must've noticed my annoyance in the cafeteria.

"Yeah, sometime it is, but you learn to have great concentration skills."

She nodded and grew silent again. We came back to our hallway and she opened the door to the room left of Bruce's. She looked at me then, nodded, and walked inside, closing the door behind her. I guess she expected me to do the same. I stared at the door and shuffled my feet. He may find it creepy if I just waited for him to wake up. Or he may find it sweet. I haven't known him long enough to guess, I listened to the inside of his room. I mostly heard the sound of the machines running, but I heard his even paced breathing as well.

I decided to suck it up and enter. I opened the door slowly and peeked in. Bruce still lay there, only now he was stirring a bit. I crept in and closed the door softly behind me and found a light switch. I thought about hitting it, but I realized that his head may not be able to take it, considering how hard Thor had hit him. The small amount of light in the room was enough. I found a small counter next to his bed and set the trays on it. That's when I noticed the straps around his wrists that bound him to the bed. As if that would stop the Hulk.

I rolled my eyes and found a small stool in the corner of the room. I took it and sat next to his bed. I heard footsteps and clanking metal come down the hallway, stopping at Barton's room. I listened as Natasha explained that she and I were watching over the "patients" and they were each going to guard by the doors. Though I wasn't too sure on who they would be guarding.

Bruce suddenly groaned next to me and I turned to him. His head rolled on the pillow and his eyelids cringed. I suddenly grew fearful. He probably wouldn't appreciate it if I leered over him and watched him wake up. But I was already in the room and the guard was outside so it would be weird if I walked out and walked back in because then the guard would assume that – OK. Alyss, stop being stupid.

I sighed and looked back at Bruce's face, attempting to ignore the bare upper half of him.

"Bruce?" I asked quietly.

His eyelids fluttered open. He looked at me, but obviously had to wait a minute for his brain to catch up.

"…Alyss?"

I smiled and nodded. He groaned again he tried to move his arm. When he met the resistance of the strap he looked down at it and sighed heavily.

"Great…" he muttered.

Without a second thought I went to undo his restraints. I heard him chuckle after I had the first one undone and had stood and leaned over his bed to the next.

"What?" I asked, seeing him smile at me.

"They may get mad at you for undoing them."

I scoffed. "In case you didn't notice, I have plenty of reasons to be mad at them too."

I sat back down as he raised his hands to his head, being careful of the wires connected to him. I looked away, trying to be polite.

"Alyss?" I turned to look at him but his hands still covered everything put his mouth. "Is there any way you can get me water?"

I smiled. "Way ahead of you."

He dropped his hands and watched as I picked up his tray. He pushed himself up the bed and into a sitting position before taking the tray from me. He immediately took to the bottle of water. I smiled to myself for being helpful.

"So you've gone from secretary to personal assistant?" he asked after taking a long swig of water.

I laughed. "I guess so; I just thought you may be hungry after… What happened." Way to go Alyss, make it awkward for everyone.

I chomped down on my bottom lip, cursing myself, but Bruce didn't seem to notice.

"Well, you were correct."

He smiled sincerely at me and my face flushed. This guy was too nice. He began to work on the contents of his tray and I did the same with mine, setting it on my lap. I could hear Natasha and Agent Barton speaking to one another softly in the next room. She was undoing his restraints too, so I probably did the right thing.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Bruce said, breaking my concentration.

"Oh, it's just… Agent Romanoff, she's next door with Agent Barton and she's undoing his restraints too. So I guess it's ok that I undid yours."

"Wow, those ears of yours can hear a lot, can't they?"

I nodded. "If I really wanted to, I could hear the blood go through my veins, but it isn't the most pleasant thought."

"You should become a scientist. We'd kill to have hearing like that. To hear reactions before they can be seen."

Before I could reply, I heard the sound of multiple people's footsteps. One of them was definitely Steve's. Bruce gave me a questioning look and I gestured to the door. He sighed and leaned back against the pillow, understanding my concern. A moment later, the guard let Steve and several medics into the room.

"Dr. Banner. Alyss." He greeted both of us. We nodded back and he continued. "Alyss, would you come with me while the medics check on Dr. Banner?"

"What are they going to do with him?" I asked in the coldest voice I could muster.

"I assume just a check on his progress-"

"Then why are the carrying guns? And cuffs? What are you hiding Steve?" I stood up now and the medics backed away.

"'Alyss,'" Steve and Bruce said at the same time. They looked at each other and Steve stood down. I turned to Bruce and met his sad smile.

"It's alright; just go with Steve, ok?"

I frowned but didn't argue. I hesitantly left the side of his bed and exited the room with Steve, after throwing one last concerned look at Bruce and the medics. Steve closed the door quietly behind us and met the glare that I threw at him.

"I'm sorry Alyss," he said.

"What's going on?"

He sighed and leaned against the wall opposite the room, "Fury and the rest of SHIELD are trying to figure out what to do with him. The medics are in there just to be sure he's stable."

I raised an eyebrow at him, "And if he wasn't, their guns would do what to help them?"

"Nothing, of course, but they protect themselves with what they can."

"Are they going to stick him inside that cell they were holding Loki in?"

Steve opened his mouth to answer but was interrupted by Maria Hill, who had come walking down the hall.

"Unfortunately, that is not possible." The sound of her heels hitting the floor rebounded loudly off the walls. I had the distinct feeling that she was doing it on purpose.

She stopped beside us. "Before Loki escaped, he attempted to send Thor down in the cell. Agent Coulson shot him and Thor managed to get out, but caused the cell to fall out of the ship doing so. He couldn't get to Coulson before…" she looked down then, her hard exterior faltering for a moment. "Before he was terminated."

We remained quiet, and let her words hang there for a moment, almost out of respect for him.

"Then what will you do with him?" I asked quietly.

Hill shook her head, "We don't know yet. Director Fury should be devising a plan now."

I straightened up and headed down the hall, vaguely knowing where the control room was located.

"Alyss!" Steve sprinted to my side. "Where are you going?"

"To find Fury."

"Alyss, this isn't your job. Fury, he'll come up with –"

I stopped abruptly and turned to face him, "Fury will come up with another cell. He'll stick a perfectly sane man inside of a cell. That will be his solution; but it doesn't need to be."

I watched as Steve stared down at me and then his shoulders visually relax. "Ma'am," he stated. "I will support you in whatever solution you come up with for Dr. Banner, but please, let it be a reasonable one."

I smiled up at him, "Captain, I assure you that Fury will not be able to refuse."

I turned and we continued our walk to the control room.

"That doesn't mean it's reasonable." He muttered.

* * *

Once inside the control room, Steve and I found Fury and Tony in a fierce argument. Well, it looked fierce on Fury's side.

"-Stark, you WILL NOT threaten the safety of my ship-"

"-I'm not, you are. Seriously, isn't driving with one eye illegal-"

"-This isn't the time for games Stark, Banner is-"

"-Banner is the reason we found the Tesseract and will more than likely be- OH HEY!"

Tony caught sight of me and Steve in the doorway and rushed over to me, pulling me by the arm back over to Fury.

"Ask his secretary! She knows."

I blushed at Tony's use of my nickname but Fury ignored it.

"I'm done with your foolishness Stark." He said, glaring at Tony.

"Director, we have to talk as well." I said.

Fury gave me a defeated look. "Can't you all see that I am directing a giant ship belonging to an import-"

"Leave Bruce to me and my brother."

Fury looked taken back at my statement.

"We took him down last time, we could do it again."

Fury sighed heavily and leaned against the railing of his control panel. "Alyss, you're asking for a lot here."

"And you owe me for not letting a giant green rage monster wreck your ship any further than it already did."

"She has a point," Steve said, from behind me. "This girl has moxie and I'm sure her brother is the same way if they took him down, with or without Thor. They could do it again, if need be."

Fury looked at all three of us warily until he was certain that we were not wavering on the subject. He turned away from us and faced his control panel.

"For now, I leave him to you and Dante, but I make no promises for what happens after were done with the Tesseract."

I smiled and turned to leave the room.

* * *

I found Dante walking down a hallway sometime later and called out to him. He jumped and looked back at me uncertainly. I ran up to his side and smiled at him.

"What's up with you?"

"We're in charge of Bruce now."

He blinked at me, not grasping what I was saying to him.

"What?"

"We're in charge of Bruce. If he Hulks out again then we're taking him down."

"And you're smiling."

"What?"

"And you're smiling. This was your idea."

I looked up at him sheepishly. "It was better than any plan Fury could've come up with."

Dante sighed and then looked me up and down. "Fine, whatever. You need a shower kid."

I laughed, knowing that I looked like a complete and total mess.

"Do you even know where our rooms are? Or if they've been blown up?"

He smiled cheekily. "No and no. I say we go find out."

I nodded and we headed off down the long hallway.

* * *

**Another chapter down! I hope you guys don't mind the plot change. Oh, and I love reviews!**


	5. Social Awkwardness

**I know this update took forever, but college classes and AP exams have been kicking my butt! Sorry its a little short!**

* * *

I don't think that I've ever appreciated a shower so much.

The water was so warm for so long that I seriously debated on never leaving it, but I knew that people would miss me eventually. So, I had begrudgingly left it behind.

I was surveying my donated clothes for anything to wear when I heard a knock on my door. I scampered over and hid my body behind the door as I cracked it open and peeked through. It was Natasha, in street clothes and freshly curled hair. She cracked a small smile at what she could see of my appearance.

"Having trouble finding clothes?" she asked.

"Yeah," I half sighed.

She motioned towards the door and I let her into my room. I clutched onto my towel but she didn't notice; she went right over to my clothes that I had laid out on the bed. I noticed her visibly cringe.

"Pretty awful, huh?" I asked.

She nodded and picked up a shirt that said "Love the Earth" on the front and seemed to be considering it.

"The shirts aren't too bad; it's the bottoms situation that I'm having trouble with." I said.

Natasha only nodded again and I pursed my lips and silently cursed at myself. She obviously wasn't much of a talker, so why was I blabbing away? I noticed her taking off her tan colored jacket and looked up. It wasn't that warm in my room. Then off came her long red shirt.

She tossed it towards me and I flailed around in an attempt to catch it and still keep my towel up. She pulled on the Earth shirt and then looked over at me.

"If you wear my shirt with the uniform pants, it won't look as bad." She said nonchalantly, as she pulled her jacket back on. She walked towards the door and let her hand rest on the knob as she turned to me.

"I'm going to get clearance from Fury so we can go get you some actual clothes. I'll be back."

She closed the door behind her and I scurried to get ready.

* * *

I looked out the car window contently as we drove down Melrose Ave., watching all the tourists take pictures of graffiti art and shop. I could remember when Dante took me window shopping when we were in LA for a year. We used to steal from the thrift stores regularly.

"Have you been here before?" Natasha asked.

"Yes, closest place I've ever had to a home, actually." I turned to her and smiled.

"Ok, do have any ideas of where you'd like to start then?"

"Yeah, if it's still there."

I directed her a few blocks down, where we parked and headed into small store. I drifted down the aisles until I found my size and began sifting through pants. Natasha ended up beside me looking at the wall opposite us that held bags. I stopped my search after picking out two pairs.

"Um, Natasha?" I asked quietly.

"Yes?"

"How much am I allowed to spend?"

She turned to me and smirked. "It's SHIELD's money, so as far as I'm concerned, as much as we want."

I giggled and moved on to the register.

After a while, we stopped to get something to eat. We sat outside and watched as the people walked by in silence. It wasn't awkward though, it was very pleasant. Natasha was quiet, but was enjoyable. She honestly wasn't as much of a terror as she I thought she was when I first had met her. She even bought a few things herself. It was funny to see her sip contently from her iced tea and know that she's probably killed hundreds of people. Then again, I've killed at least 15. I shifted uncomfortably and she looked over at me.

"Is something wrong?"

I shook my head, "No… I was just wondering what Dante must be doing."

"Ah, he was pretty irritated when I saw him last,"

This piqued my interest, "Really?"

Natasha nodded, "I guess he wasn't doing too well with the clothes situation either. I guess he wanted to go with us, but Fury is playing a one-at-a-time rule when it comes to you two."

"'So long as one of you are here, I know that the other won't leave without our notice'," I quoted dryly.

"His exact words."

"I figured."

"You ought to tell him to ask Stark for new clothes," she said as she stretched back in her chair. "That man looks for any reason to spend money."

"Do you know him well?" I asked, hoping that I wasn't prying.

"One could say that."

I decided to drop that subject. "What about Captain Rogers? Or Dr. Banner?"

"Not really. I trained a bit with Steve last night and we talked some. As for Dr. Banner, you probably know him the best out of all of us at this point."

I couldn't stop a small smile from forming on my face. It kind of made me feel special.

"You realize he's like, 40, right?"

"Huh?"

"Banner, he's 40. Maybe a little bit younger, but that's still, you know, up there."

I cocked an eyebrow at her, "Yes?"

She sighed, "I'd hate for you to think that I'm assuming things, but I am. Just, don't get your hopes up too high, kid."

I blushed and avoided looking her direction. "It's not like that." I muttered.

"Not like what?"

"THAT."

"That?"

"You're warning me about his age, I know his age. It doesn't matter."

"Why?"

"Because it's not like that."

"And 'that' is?"

"'That' is impossible."

"Why?"

"Because he's… I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"I'm below his standards. Totally beneath them."

"So then you do like him?"

"I NEVER-"

"You said you're beneath his standards."

"So?!"

"So that implies that if you met his standards you'd go for it."

"Is this how you kill your enemies?"

"Yes, but that's beside the point."

I groaned, exasperated.

"Well then," -I could hear the victory in her voice-"How do you know what his standards are?"

"I just kind of assumed."

Natasha remained silent and stared me down. So I continued.

"The really smart type, like how he is. Probably somebody who is very caring, somebody who has mother-like tendencies and who is… Older. She'd be really pretty too; the blond hair, blue-eyed type." I peered up at Natasha, who now had an incredulous look on her face. "What?"

"So, you're basically saying that his type is the perfect woman?" she asked.

"Everything I'm not."

I think I caught her rolling her eyes at me as she stood up and began gathering our shopping bags.

"Maybe you don't know him as well as I thought. Come on, the parking meter is going to run out soon."

I nodded and picked up some of my own bags.

We were parked about 3 blocks away, so we walked quickly. Natasha's legs were longer than I thought, seeing as I almost had to run to keep up with her strides. When we were about a quarter of a block away, she stopped abruptly in the middle of the walk way.

"What?" I asked her.

She began to walk again, this time at a slower pace. "Seems like Dante did as I suggested."

I looked ahead and noticed another expensive car next to ours. I listened and sure enough, I heard Dante's voice, along with Tony's and Steve's. We made our way to the trunk of our car and began stacking our bags in the back.

"Should we be kind and grace them with our presence?" I joked.

She nodded, "If you want."

She let me guide her to the source of their voices. We walked into the men's store where we saw Dante arguing with Tony. Loudly.

"Dante!" I said harshly.

His head snapped my direction. His face relaxed and he smiled but then frowned as Tony pushed past him roughly and walked towards me.

"Alyss! Now why would you go shopping with a spider when you could've gone with good ol' Daddy Warbucks?"

"I thought that Dante would have more fun with you. Hey, I thought I heard Steve too. Where is he?"

"Oh, he and Bruce are in the back trying something on. Don't worry, I sent Barton to watch them. You know, I really think that I should switch my profession over to fashion designer, I'm starting to get the hang of this LA style." He said, waggling his eyebrows at me over his sunglasses.

I rolled my eyes at him.

"Are you going to at least buy my brother something?"

Dante interrupted Tony before he could say anything, "Yes, but he wants me to dress like him!"

I laughed at him, "What's wrong with that?"

"A Stark look-alike? That's humiliating."

"More like a blessing." Tony said smugly.

"Some clothes are better than none." I reminded him.

Dante sighed in annoyance and I turned back to Natasha, who had been watching the scene play out contently.

"Do we want to stick around here?" I asked her.

"Oh, I think we can stay for a bit longer," she said, looking past me.

I followed her gaze and saw Bruce, Steve, and Barton walking back from the changing rooms. Barton was attempting to explain to Steve why clothes were now so expensive, but Steve was obviously not catching on. Bruce looked up and smiled at Natasha and I. I smiled back and Natasha gave him a small nod of her head. I remembered mine and Natasha's conversation and felt my knees go weak

"We should go." I whispered to Natasha timidly.

She nodded and turned to Tony and Dante, "Well, have fun shopping boys."

I waved good bye to all of them as we walked out the door. We got inside the car and I breathed a sigh of relief. We began heading back towards the Helicarrier, and I stared out the window.

"So are you going to avoid him now?"

"What?"

"Are you going to try to avoid him?"'

"Ah…" I stammered. Was I going to?

Natasha waited quietly for my answer, but it never came. An awkward silence arose between us. She finally broke it.

"I won't pry anymore, but I will say this: the sooner it's out in the open, the easier it gets. Trust me."

* * *

The rest of the car ride was silent until we made it back to Helicarrier. Another agent came and whisked Natasha away almost immediately, so I was left alone. I sat outside the dock for a while with my bags and watched as large machines made repairs to the battered ship. I thought for a moment about the casualties but I quickly pushed the thought out of my head. It was no good to dwell on it now. I did wonder a bit about what our next move would be. If we were going to hunt down Loki and the Tesseract, and how, considering that the lab was now wrecked. He could begin his attack at any time now, and we wouldn't even know.

I frowned, as depressing of a thought it was, I knew that Dante and I couldn't do much, even with our abilities. We weren't trained like Steve or Natasha. I sighed heavily.

"What is wrong?" I heard a deep voice say next to me.

I nearly jumped out of my skin. I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't hear Thor come near me.

"H-hello Thor," the words tumbled out of my mouth, as I was still in shock.

"I did not mean to scare you."

"I know. It was my fault for not listening." I scooted over on the bench that I was sitting on, "Would you like to sit?"

"Verily."

He sat down next to me and ended up taken up more than I expected. I scooted over to the very edge and made myself as small as possible to allow room for the large man.

"Your forename is Alyssandra, is it not? And your brother is Dante?"

I nodded and looked up at him, "Yes, but you can call me Alyss if you like. Alyssandra is kind of a mouthful."

Thor didn't look at me; he continued to watch the Helicarrier. "Very well then, Alyss, how did you manage to conjure that shield when we fought off the Hulk?"

I raised an eyebrow at him. Why was he interested in that?

"I'm not sure," I said warily. "That was the first time that's ever happened."

"Ah," he answered. "The power that some of you Midgardians have are extraordinary. In my realm of Asgard, only powerful sorcerers can manage such things."

I assumed by Midgardians he meant humans. "Do you have many sorcerers in Asgard?"

"Nay. It is a difficult skill to learn, even if it is in your blood line. There are few in all of the 9 realms." Thor paused. "Although, it came quite naturally to my brother Loki, though he is not of sorcerer's blood."

I struggled to keep conversation with him, "Really? Did he have a good teacher or something?"

Thor's eyes darkened and I chomped down on my tongue.

"Aye, a sorcerer by the name of Amora the Enchantress. Possibly the best if not for the legend of the seer of old. However, the woman is filled with a darkness."

The conversation officially became too strange for me. I stood up and began to gather my bags.

"Well, Thor, I'm going to retire to my room now. Thank you for the conversation." I turned to him and I noticed that he was staring at me strangely. "Thor?"

He shook his head and came out of his daze, "I apologize. May I help you with your belongings?"

I reluctantly said yes and we headed towards the Helicarrier.

* * *

Around 7:00 that night, I heard Steve coming down the hall and stop at my door. He didn't knock and just stood there, so I came the door and opened it myself. He stared down at me and smiled lightly.

"Those ears of yours," he said.

"Hello to you too, Captain. Is there anything that you needed?" I hoped he would say no, I wanted to remain anti-social and think about nothing for several more hours.

Steve cleared his throat, "Well Ma'am, I was hoping to ask you a few questions. Not for Fury or anything, just my own interests."

"Oh. Ok." I stood the side in an effort to invite him in.

He stood there frozen for a second, but then hesitantly stepped in, ears going a shade of bright red. I raised an eyebrow at him before realizing.

He's from the 50's, this must be a little intense for him.

"Ah, Ste- er- Captain? Would you like to sit?" I asked awkwardly, closing the door behind me and nodding towards the desk in the corner of the room.

"Yes, thank you Ma'am."

"You can call me Alyss, you know."

"Thank you Alyss, feel free to call me Steve from now on too."

I sat on the edge of my bed quietly. "So, um, questions?"

"Ah, yes. Well, I was looking at your list of powers earlier-" Seriously, does EVERYONE have access to that? "- and I was wondering if you've ever had professional combat training?"

I sighed, "Well, some nomads that my brother and I traveled with taught us some cheap tricks, but other than that, no. I've been fighting mostly by impulse. And having great reflexes doesn't hurt either."

Steve nodded thoughtfully. "Well, in that case I'd like to extend the invitation of training with me."

I thought it for a minute. It wasn't a bad idea, and I did want to lose some weight. "I assume you've been trained in combat?"

"Yes, among other things. Against a force like Loki and his alien friends, I think we should all be at the best of our abilities. Not to say your abilities are poor."

"No, I get it. I'd love to. Will anyone be training with us?"

He smiled bashfully, "Not yet. I asked your brother and Tony. Dante said no because he'll do fine on his own and Tony said his suit is all he needs. I plan to ask Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton too, though."

"That's fine, when can we start?"

He was taken aback by my ready answer. "We can start now, if you'd like."

I nodded and began to stand up. He did the same and walked towards the door.

"Training room in 15 minutes?" he asked.

"I'll be there in 5."

He laughed, "Alright, but I'm warning you, don't let my good manners fool you, I won't go easy on you."

He left my room and I smirked to myself. I'd give him a run for his money.

* * *

**Again, I apologize for the shortness, I'll do better next time!**


End file.
